Gonzalo Rodríguez (racing driver)
| Gonzalo Rodríguez | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Gonzalo Rodríguez Bongoll January 22, 1971 Montevideo, Uruguay |
| Died | September 11, 1999 (aged 28) Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey County, California, U.S. |
| CART Championship Car | |
| Years active | 1999 |
| Teams | Penske Racing |
| Starts | 1 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Previous series | |
| 1997–1999 1996–1997 1994–1996 1993 | International Formula 3000 British Formula 3000 British Formula Renault Spanish Formula Renault |
Gonzalo "Gonchi" Rodríguez Bongoll (January 22, 1971 – September 11, 1999)[1] was a Uruguayan racing driver. He was killed in a crash at Laguna Seca Raceway during practice for a CART race which would have been his second start in the series.
Career
[edit]He showed promise in Formula 3000 for three seasons, taking two wins in 1998 at Spa-Francorchamps and Nürburgring, winning the following season in Monaco and finishing third in both championships. Following a rotation of drivers as team mates to Al Unser Jr. in CART Penske Racing's second car, he was given his opportunity at the Detroit Grand Prix in 1999 and scored a point in his only race.
Death
[edit]At the Laguna Seca Raceway during a practice session for his second CART race, he was fatally injured in a crash. A stuck throttle was initially thought to be the cause for his car overshooting the braking point, leaving the track, striking a tire barrier and slamming into a concrete wall behind the barrier at the entry of the Corkscrew corner. Review of the in-car telemetry refuted this supposition.[2] The impact caused his car to flip over the barrier and land upside down on the other side of the wall. Rodríguez was killed instantly by a basilar skull fracture caused by the impact with the wall, which was lined by only a thin layer of tires. Because of the incident, an additional tire wall was installed at the end of the straight.[3] In 2021, teammate Al Unser, Jr. released his biography Al Unser, Jr.: A Checkered Past, written by motorsport author Jade Gurss. Unser noted the nuances of the incident, basing information on what happened to him during a tests during the season. Both he and Rodríguez were driving the Lola B99/00 chassis and not the Penske PC-27 chassis for the weekend, and he specifically noted a mechanical nuance with the Hewland gearbox versus the Xtrac used by the Penske and Reynard chassis.
"(The Lola B99/00) would jam into neutral if you tried to downshift too fast. It did it to me a couple of times in testing, which is why I preferred the (Penske PC-27). Going up the hill (before the Corkscrew), there is a point before you get to the top where you need to get out (of the throttle) to downshift and get the thing stopped. I think he was taking it to the top of the hill like (drivers driving Reynard 99I chassis vehicles that season). There was a limit on how fast you could downshift the Lola.
Unser believed the Hewland gearbox downshifted to neutral in the crash.
Rodríguez had a contract in place to compete in the 2000 CART championship with Patrick Racing, and there were rumours that Minardi could hire him for the 2001 Formula One season.
Legacy
[edit]In 2014, a Spanish-language documentary of his life, Gonchi, was released.[4]
Racing record
[edit]Complete International Formula 3000 results
[edit](key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Redman & Bright F3000 | SIL DNQ |
PAU | HEL Ret |
NÜR 6 |
PER Ret |
HOC 17 |
A1R 7 |
SPA | MUG 8 |
JER Ret |
22nd | 0.5 | ||
| 1998 | Team Astromega | OSC Ret |
IMO 3 |
CAT 21 |
SIL Ret |
MON 2 |
PAU Ret |
A1R 4 |
HOC 11 |
HUN 7 |
SPA 1 |
PER Ret |
NÜR 1 |
3rd | 33 |
| 1999 | Team Astromega | IMO 5 |
MON 1 |
CAT 2 |
MAG Ret |
SIL 15 |
A1R DNQ |
HOC 4 |
HUN Ret |
SPA 2 |
NÜR | 3rd | 27 | ||
Source:[5]
| |||||||||||||||
Complete American Open Wheel results
[edit](key)
CART
[edit]| Year | Team | No. | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Rank | Points | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Team Penske | 3 | Lola B99/00 | Mercedes-Benz IC108E | MIA | MOT | LBH | NZR | RIO | STL | MIL | POR | CLE | ROA | TOR | MIS | DET 12 |
MDO | CHI | VAN | LAG WD |
HOU | SRF | FON | 32nd | 1 | [6] |
Gallery
[edit]-
1999 Penske and Astromega firesuits -
1999 Penske helmet -
Monument at the Autódromo Víctor Borrat Fabini
References
[edit]- ^ "Rodríguez Bongoll, Gonzalo, 1971-1999 - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies | Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)".
- ^ "Rookie driver killed in CART crash". ESPN.com.
- ^ "ABC broadcast coverage of the Shell 300 from Laguna Seca Raceway". youtube.com. 4 December 2020.
- ^ "Got Netflix? Watch Gonchi — dan is cross". 2016-08-10. Archived from the original on 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
- ^ "Gonzalo Rodríguez Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "Gonzalo Rodriguez". Racing-Reference. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
External links
[edit]- Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez - a foundation which promotes child road safety and physical education
- Profile at HistoricRacing.com
- News report and footage of the crash on YouTube
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1971 births
- 1999 deaths
- British Formula Three Championship drivers
- British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers
- Champ Car drivers
- Sportspeople from Montevideo
- Racing drivers who died while racing
- Uruguayan racing drivers
- Uruguayan people of Spanish descent
- Sports deaths in California
- International Formula 3000 drivers
- British Formula 3000 Championship drivers
- Filmed deaths in motorsport
- Burials at Cementerio del Buceo, Montevideo
- Team Penske drivers
- Team Astromega drivers
- Alan Docking Racing drivers
- People educated at Stella Maris College (Montevideo)